Warlock
Overview Warlocks were once Mages who, in pursuit of ever-greater sources of power, abandoned their studies of the Arcane and delved into darker Shadow-based magic. Warlocks still retain their skills in the manipulation of the Fire element, although their focus is on delivering excruciating pain, drawing out the suffering of their victims instead of the effective application of Arcane energies to efficiently dispose of their targets from a safe distance. Warlocks are unique among the DPS caster classes because of their ability to convert health into mana. Warlocks have the strongest Damage over Time the most variety in debuffs and summonable minions. Just like a Mage, a Warlock’s Crowd control abilities appropriately used can stave off certain doom for the Warlock and their allies, and Warlock’s sustained Burst damage when suitably specced and geared can rival those of a Mage. However, the Warlock’s Area of Effect spells are not as varied as those of their Mage brethren, although when used appropriately they have powerful applications in group play. Warlocks are well versed in the "shock and horror" tactics of warfare, and their manipulation of Shadow energies can send their opponents reeling in Fear. At low levels, Warlocks rely primarily on minions and Damage over Time (DoT) spells to deal out damage to their enemies while fearing their enemies to prevent retribution. Endgame warlocks either choose to maximize the effects of their DoTs and Curses through the Affliction tree, increase the utility of their summoned minions and stones through the Demonology tree, or lay waste the opposition with Burst damage and Direct damage spells in the Destruction tree. In previous versions of WoW, the 8-debuff and 16-debuff limits prevented Warlocks from maximizing their damage output through Affliction spells, and Warlocks were relegated to chain-casting their Direct damage spells to maintain DPS in PvE raids. This has changed with the new 40-debuff limit, and Affliction DPS is now somewhat competitive in a raid environment. The Warlock can learn to summon magical mounts. All other classes, except Paladins, must purchase their own mounts with gold or via PvP. Being a Warlock demands certain things: being able to engage multiple targets simultaneously while keeping tabs on your minion, to make split-second strategic decisions on cast rotations depending on the situation, careful shard management and even more careful aggro management. Being a Warlock also rewards many things: they are PvP powerhouse due to naturally high stamina values, they have the ability to apply debilitating, even humiliating Crowd control abilities and in PvE their damage output in multiple target situations can rival those of other DPS classes who focus fire on a single target. Races The Warlock class can be played by the following races: Alliance * Gnomes * Humans Horde * Orcs * Undead * Blood Elves Weapons & Armor Warlocks can wear Cloth armor only, and can initially use Daggers and Unarmed combat in battle. They can also use Wands for ranged combat, and equip off-hands to enhance various skills. They can train at a weapon master for to gain the ability to use One-Handed Swords and Staves These are almost point less though because staves will have a better buff (most of the time). More information regarding Warlock-specific armor can be found at Warlock Sets. Attributes The Warlock has no use for Strength. Stamina is usually considered more valuable than Spirit as the warlock relies on lasting power while his DoTs come to bear. Besides that the Life Tap spell allows Warlocks to convert health to mana thereby rendering Spirit quite obsolete. Thus the most valuable stats are, in descending order: # Stamina # +Spell Damage (especially valuable as it now boosts both DoTs and nukes as well as Life Tap and Dark Pact) # Intellect # Spell crit # Spell hit # Health regeneration (+X Health per Y seconds) # Mana regeneration (+X Mana per Y seconds) # Spirit # Agility Although Agility is not vital to a Warlock, it does add a little to the Armor rating. See also attributes, Formulas:Health Regen and Formulas:Mana Regen for more information. Soul Shards A large number of the Warlock's skills and spells rely on the reagent known as Soul Shards. Soul Shards are obtained by using the Drain Soul spell. To create a soul shard, the warlock must be channeling this spell as the target dies. Only targets that would give experience (or honor in the case of a PvP target) to the warlock will yield a Soul Shard. Shadowburn (talent) also creates a soul shard if the enemy dies within five seconds of casting it, but since it also costs a shard to cast, the net effect is zero shards (or less if the cast is mistimed or spell is resisted). Abilities Find detailed information about the warlock's various abilities on the Warlock Spells page. Minions Warlocks can summon a variety of minions, each exhibiting different skill sets which are useful in different situations. *Imp (Level Obtained: Varies, obtainable as early as 1, usually 4 though) : The Imp's main role is a support minion, designed to do additional damage alongside the caster via its Firebolt attack. The Imp is very fragile and will die very quickly if attacked, but it requires no Soul Shard to summon, and is often used to farm new Soul Shards when you run out and cannot summon a different minion. Other Imp abilities include Phase Shift (allowing the Imp to shift out of phase and cannot be attacked by enemies), Blood Pact, a powerful stamina buff for everyone in your party, and Fire Shield, a Thorns-like damage shield (with FR at higher levels) which he will cast on you and your teammates that enter combat. With the Improved Imp and Improved Firebolt talents, the Imp is the most damaging minion in the warlock's arsenal (with the notable exceptions of the Infernal and Doomguard); at least until he runs out of Mana. The Imp is also useful as a mana battery for affliction warlocks using dark pact due to his ability to stay out of harms way and his fast mana regeneration. *Voidwalker (Level Obtained: 10, Undead, Orc, Blood Elf, Gnome, Human) : This demon deals little damage, but has very good armor and good hit points. The Voidwalker's main ability, Torment is a taunt that causes enemies to lose interest in the warlock and instead attack the Voidwalker. There is also a PBAOE version of Torment called Suffering. This makes for an excellent soloing minion, and is also great for farming additional Soul Shards. Additional Voidwalker spells include Sacrifice, which kills your Voidwalker but creates a 30-second damage absorption shield for the warlock, and Consume Shadows which is an out of combat self-heal for the Voidwalker. *Succubus (Level Obtained: 20, Undead, Orc, Alliance) : The Succubus is replete with spells that deal damage and mesmerize the enemy in different ways. Her first ability, Lash of Pain, is a direct-damage, low-mana cast that deals shadow damage to her target. Other spells include Soothing Kiss, which will reduce threat (the reverse of the Voidwalker's Torment ability) and Seduction, which mesmerizes a target for 15 seconds (or until attacked). The Succubus also has a self-only Lesser Invisibility spell. Succubus deals the most damage of all the basic minions, without talent upgrades. *Felhunter (Level Obtained: 30, Horde, Alliance) : The Felhunter is your anti-caster minion. Where the Succubus deals lots of melee damage, the Voidwalker is a great tank and the Imp deals lots of ranged damage, the Felhunter has high magic resist and has abilities to Counterspell (Spell Lock), remove buffs from enemies and remove debuffs from friendlies (Devour Magic). The Warlock employing a meleeing Felhunter can also use Tainted Blood to reduce the Attack power of enemies when they land hits. *Infernal (Level Obtained: 50, from Grimoire of Inferno or Kroshius' Infernal Core) : While it deals better melee damage than the Succubus, has higher HP, fire immunity, and more AC than a Voidwalker; it needs to be enslaved (with the Enslave Demon spell) after the first five minutes. This demon can break loose unexpectedly, causing it to turn on its former master. It can be enslaved again (at the cost of one Soul Shard per attempt), but Enslave is subject to diminishing returns -- the duration decreases with each successive casting on the same demon. The Infernal deals strictly in melee damage, combined with an immolation effect that hurts all enemies nearby. It also requires an Infernal Stone to summon. *Doomguard (Level Obtained: 60, from Curse of Doom or Ritual of Doom) : The Doomguard is the most powerful Warlock minion. It has the highest HP and AC, as well as having Rain of Fire, Dispel, Cripple and Warstomp. A properly used Doomguard can take out entire camps of enemies at a time before perishing. However, like the Infernal, it requires Enslave Demon to be cast on it to stay within the Warlock's control, but unlike the Infernal, it MUST be enslaved right away, or it will start attacking you or your party/raid. It can be re-enslaved after but the Enslave's duration diminishes after each casting. Curse of Doom has about a 10% chance of summoning a Doomguard if it deals the killing damage. Ritual of Doom will summon a Doomguard 100% of the time, but requires the assistance of your party, and will kill one member of your group. That one party member could be you, thus unleashing an angry Doomguard on your group mates with no one to enslave it unless another Warlock is in your group. Ritual of Doom requires a Demonic Figurine reagent. * Felguard was added in the 2.0.1 patch (Obtained: from 41 point tier of the new demonology talent tree) : The Felguard is the most powerful non-enslaved Warlock minion. Overall effectiveness compared to other warlock minions is in a rapid state of flux. As of patch 2.0.3, it has similar DPS to the succubus, while tanking almost as well as the Voidwalker (having less armor but very similar or slightly better single target aggro generation (this appears to be changing however, with armour increasing). This demon has abilities that help a lot in PvP as well as when soloing. It uses the standard single soul shard to summon. Mounts *Felsteed (Level Obtained: 40, from trainers) : The Felsteed is the 'free mount' that Warlocks receive at level 40. Other than Paladins, all other classes must pay for a mount and for training to ride it (these prices can be lowered by being Honored with the mount's city (and pre 2.0 by obtaining the Sergeant rank)). This is a great help since Warlocks must purchase spells for their summoned minions as well. You also gain riding skill 75. *Dreadsteed (Level Obtained: 60, from Mor'zul Bloodbringer in Burning Steppes near the Altar of Storms) : The Dreadsteed is the Warlock Epic level 60 mount. This minion is obtained though a long quest line. It is not free, but it is still available to Warlocks at a significant discount compared to other classes ( , compared to ~ for everyone else). This cost can be further reduced by another if you have another warlock who already has the materials. This cost however does not take into account the three materials collection quests you are tasked with which can be very costly, particularly if your Warlock does not posses any of the trade skills required to do them. By completing the quest line you also gain riding skill 150. Damage over Time Spells The Warlock DoTs are the most powerful in the game. They also have the most. * Corruption * Immolate (DD too) * Unstable Affliction (Affliction Talent) * Curse of Agony * Siphon Life (Affliction Talent) Direct Damage Spells The Warlock's direct damage spells are either Shadow or Fire based. While a Warlock's direct damage alone does not compare to the Mage, when coupled with their DoTs and a minion they can achieve a strong, steady DPS to rival any DPS Class. *Shadow Bolt (DD ranged projectile spell) *Searing Pain (Fire spell producing high threat) *Soul Fire (The Warlock version of the mage's Pyroblast at the cost of 1 soul shard and with a cooldown of 1 minute) *Death Coil (A Binary spell that heals the Warlock for the damage incurred, and a short Fear) *Conflagrate (Destruction talent) *Shadowburn (Destruction talent, instant cast spell costing 1 shard that is refunded if the mob isn't grey to the warlock, or if the target yields honor, and if the target dies within 5 seconds. *Immolate (Hybrid spell with a DD component and a DoT too) *Incinerate (Used with Immolate, Conflagrate spell rotations.) *Shadowfury (Destruction talent, targeted AOE, stuns and has a chance to crit) Channeled * Rain of Fire * Hellfire * Drain Life * Drain Mana * Drain Soul Curses The Warlock has available variety of curses, but only one can be cast upon an enemy at a given time. This creates the need for determining an appropriate Curse in a given situation. Curses include strength-draining, damage-over-time, resistance depletion, and others. *Curse of Agony - Deals increasing damage over time to the victim. *Curse of Weakness - Reduces the victim's attack power. *Curse of Recklessness - Decreases the victims armor value, increases the victim's attack power, prevents the victim from running away at low health, but makes the victim immune to fear for the duration of the curse. *Curse of Tongues - Increases the victim's casting time by a percentage. *Curse of Exhaustion - Decreases the victim's movement speed by a percentage (affliction tree talent). *Curse of the Elements - Reduces the victim's fire and frost resistances and increases the fire and frost damage the victim takes by a percentage. *Curse of Shadow - Reduces the victim's arcane and shadow resistances and increases the arcane and shadow damage the victim takes by a percentage. *Curse of Doom - Deals damage after one minute; may summon a Doomguard on death (can't be used versus other players) Conjured Items Another powerful ability of the Warlock is to create varying Stones from Soul Shards. Most stones are used from the wand slot and either enhance damage or remove negative spell effects. All conjured items disappear 15 minutes after logging off. *Create Healthstone - Creates a stone that will heal damage. It comes in various strengths and is tradeable. It is very similar to a health potion, but on a separate timer. *Create Soulstone - Creates a stone that allows you to insure someone's soul for 30 minutes. That person can self resurrect if they died while the soulstone was active. *Create Firestone - Creates a non-tradeable item which adds Fire damage to your wielded weapon and increases Fire spell damage. *Create Spellstone - Creates a non-tradeable stone that when equipped and used, will remove all negative magic effects. It also has a 3 minute cooldown. While equipped, it will increase the warlock's spell crit chance. Healing While a Warlock is by no means a healer, they do have some limited ability to heal themselves, their minions and others while in combat, and even resurrect. To heal themselves there are Drain Life, Siphon Life (Affliction talent) and Death Coil which, conveniently, also damage the target. Demonic Sacrifice (Demonology talent) also restores 2% of total Health every 4 sec, at the cost of a summoned Voidwalker. The Demon Armor spell also provides a small health regeneration effect, including during combat. To heal others (or himself), a Warlock can create a Healthstone and hand it to another member of their party. These can be improved through talents. Burning Crusades introduced the Ritual of Souls which creates a Soul Well from which 10 Master Healthstones can be extracted by any person in the raid or party. To heal their minion they have Health Funnel. This can be improved through talents. To resurrect a target a Warlock may use a Soulstone on the target before it dies (30 minutes Buff duration and Cooldown), allowing it to resurrect on death. Miscellany The Warlock has other valuable spells at their disposal *Fear - sends an enemy fleeing for a period of time,and is key to prevent the warlock from receiving damage. Unlike Mage’s Polymorph ability, the Warlock’s key Crowd control ability does not increase health generation of the target, so they are able to Fear a target while still doing damage. *Howl of Terror - sends enemies around you fleeing in terror for a period of time. *Banish - freezes a demon or elemental - preventing them from attacking, though they are also immune to all damage while banished. Can also be used in PvP against enemy demons and Treeform Druids or Treants summoned by Druids. *Ritual of Summoning - a ritual requiring 2 other party members which allows you to summon another party member to your location. *Eye of Kilrogg - a fragile but speedy eye that allows you to scout out dangerous areas from a safe distance. It is possible to aggro some bosses with an Eye. *Unending Breath - allows a target to breathe underwater *Detect Invisibility - allows a target to see invisible units. *Sense Demons - shows demons on the minimap. Melee Although the warlock is a ranged class, it does have some provisions for fighting at melee range. Warlock can equip swords, as well as Firestones to bolster their melee attack power. Defensively, a warlock can share his damage with his pet via Soul Link, and counter melee attacks with Fire Shield. With crowd control abilities such as Fear, Death Coil, and Howl of Terror, the warlock can help deter melee engagements. Talents *Affliction - Affliction talents are largely based on increasing the effectiveness of DoTs, Drains, and Curses. Affliction's strengths are its ability to remain mobile in PvP, allow the Warlock to heal himself, and is very mana efficient, great for farming. Key talents include Shadow Mastery, Siphon Life, Fel Concentration, Improved Corruption and Unstable Affliction. *Demonology - Demonology talents are largely based on improving the effectiveness of your minions, conjure spells, and bestowing other passive bonuses. Demonology's strengths are its versatility and survivability. Key talents include Soul Link, Master Demonologist, Demonic Sacrifice, Demonic Embrace and Summon Felguard. *Destruction - Destruction talents are largely based on increasing the effect of a warlock's Direct Damage spells, making them cast faster, crit more often, and ultimately deal more Burst Damage. Destruction's strength is its ability to quickly kill a single foe. Key talents include Conflagrate, Ruin, Shadowburn, and Bane. Talent builders can be found at Official Blizzard site, Panda Hideout, WoW Vault, Thottbot, Merciless Talent Calculator. See the Warlock talents page for detailed information and talent trees. End-Game Expectations DPS, Soulstones, minion Tanking...is there anything that Warlocks can't do?. Your abilities can bring a lot of support to parties, and you are an excellent source of DPS. Make good use of your Soul Shards, be prepared to Summon late comers, and give out some of that soul candy you call Healthstones. Be prepared to banish a lot of elementals, since you're the only form of Crowd Control in Molten Core except on Majordomo Executus. Also, don't forget to Soulstone the main tank or healers, it may make the difference in whether you live or wipe. When doing 40-man high level instances, the Warlocks normally assign the responsibility of curses among each other. Effective use of applying those curses are usually expected. As a warlock, it's your responsibility to know what curse to use unless the raid leader requests otherwise. Due to a demonology warlock's high magic resistance, they are used temporarily in tanking Vek'lor in Temple of Ahn'Qiraj who is immune to physical damage and does mostly magical damage. Macros Addons Many warlock addons used to revolve around sorting shards. However, as of patch 1.9 this functionality was integrated into soul shard bags. * Healthstone Trader is designed to automate the process of handing out healthstones by warlocks, and can be initiated by the user or a whisper. This can be very useful in raids where large amounts of healthstones may need to be handed out. Its various features can be trigged by either a hotkey or through a whisper. * RaidSummon will queue group/raidmembers that request to be summoned (by whispering you a specific keyword) and notify the warlock with an audio signal and a text message. Casting "Ritual of Summoning" will then summon the first player in the queue and - if the ritual succeeded (RaidSummon detects failures) - remove him from the list. Casting again will summon the next player and so on. Additionally, using the "Ritual of Summoning" action while targeting a raid/group-member will perform a normal ritual of summoning on him - preferring the target over already queued raid/group-members. * Necrosis LdC is based on Necrosis 1 by infernal. It is described by its author as "a mod to help Warlocks managing their stones, shards and demon summoning. No more, but no less..." It is a very useful addon and perhaps the most widely used of the Warlock specific addons. See Also * Instance Grouping Guide Warlock -- Advice for instances * Starting a Warlock -- Some advice when starting out. * Warlock Spells -- Spells available to the Warlock. * Warlock Category -- Further information on the Warlock class, including spells. * Warlock: Working with Other Classes * Warlock: How to Kill A... * Warlock: How to Help A... * Warlock quests * Warlock tactics * Warlock talents * Warlock patch history -- Changes to the Warlock class * EU WoW forums * US WoW forums * The Warlocks Den ---- Category:Classes Category:Warlocks